Draft #50 "Dragons or not" - June 19, 2015

It's late in the format, and we've been through a lot of Dragons of Tarkir, so we felt it was time to try something a little kookie. Alas, best laid plans often do not work out, and what started as a kookie draft quickly turned into something else. Did we make the right decisions? You be the judge.

So it should be pretty clear that we abandoned our stipulation when the second dragon came along, but to be fair, that wasn't until the middle of pack three. It wouldn't have been much of a dragon deck with only two dragons.

What we ended up with was basically a draft that went off the rails. It should be a testament to the strength of red/black in this set that we still managed to go 2-1. Besides the fact that we first picked a situational dud, there just wasn't really much in the first pack. If we'd been drafting normally, we probably could have had a fairly decent blue/black deck (watch the draft to see what I mean), but we weren't giving up on much.

The games were short and entertaining, but not particularly notable.

Truth be told, the format is just getting stale for us, and we'll likely be doing more Modern Masters for the next few weeks. We may even head back to Theros for a quick visit. If any of you out there have any suggestions, feel free to comment. Shoot us a tweet or post on Facebook, and we'd love to try something kookie. In the mean time, we'll keep plugging on.

Thanks for watching,


-Step.

Draft #49 "Messing With Modern" - June 12, 2015

Hey Everyone,

We're back to the drafting table after an unscheduled hiatus, and ready to try our hand at the latest supplementary product, Modern Masters 2015. Let's see how we did!

Since we couldn't make it to GP Vegas, we decided we at least wanted to draft Modern Masters 2015 once before it left MTGO. I honestly would have preferred to show you the sealed deck that we made while preparing for this draft, as it was a much better deck, but the one we put together here wasn't bad. Our curve was good, and we had lots of options for sideboarding. Running Elesh Norn was probably a mistake, and we knew that at the time. If I'd gotten to first pick Elesh Norn, I would have gone white/green, and tried to pick up as many token producers as I could. In our deck, she was basically flood insurance.

In the first game we didn't really know what we were doing, especially when we kept a bad hand. Five land and no action with our deck was bad, and we should have know it. Besides that, I think the deck would have mulliganed fairly well, so we should have given the deck another chance.

Game two really looked like we were in better shape, until we ran into a bunch of removal. I'd also like to say something about our opponent's deck. I hadn't thought about the synergy between Graft and Proliferate, but in hindsight, it looked like a potent combo. I'd like to try Sultai in this format if I get the chance.

In the other round we actually got to play, we were up against the Spirit deck, and that could have been a lot more trouble than it actually ended up. It was nice to see Elesh Norn make an appearance to win us the final game, but ultimately, this wasn't the deck for her, and we should have known that.

While one round was a bye, this was still technically a 2-1, which means we got our entry fee back, so there may be another one of these in the future. I hope you enjoyed it as much as we did.

Thanks for Watching,


-Step.

Modern Masters 2015 paper draft report - June 12, 2015

Tams and I recently went to a MM2 draft at The Gamer's Emporium, and it was a lot of fun. I didn't open anything of great value (though there was a Tarmogoyf, a Kiki-Jiki, an Ulamog, and a foil Vendilion Clique opened at the table), but the deck I put together was really fun to play. Take a look.

My first pick was a Sunlance, as my rare was of little value. I figured that good removal which fits into at least three decks was pretty solid. Artifacts were being passed to me in great number, and I thought I could get away with affinity. Once I got my second court homunculus and a frogmite almost last pick of pack one, I knew I was correct. As it turned out, someone else at the table was also drafting affinity, but they prioritized blue cards while I snapped up all the good artifacts. Throw in a couple of Narcolepsys and a Arrest, and my deck was a force to be reckoned with.

The one outlier of my deck was the Hearthfire Hobgoblin, but when the Izzet Boilerworks wheeled the table, I decided to include both.

I wasn't sure whether muldrifter, as a five drop, or Qumulox, as an eight drop would be castable with only 16 land in my deck, but as it turned out, I was generally able to play both by the time they ended up in my hand. At one point I cast both in the same turn, which felt fantastic.

Although I tried to draft fairly tight to my archetype, I did end up with a few off colour cards which I thought about playing.

Agony Warp might have been worth splashing for, and I'd considered splashing black for Duskhunter Bat, Vampire Lacerator, and Sign in Blood. I thought about running Electrolyze, since I was already in blue with red fixing, but at the end of the day consistency won out.

I also had a number of artifacts which I decided to leave out, and that decision was a bit more difficult.

Leaving out the Skyreach Mantas was easier after I decided not to splash, as a 3/3 flyer for 5 just wasn't as good as the other things I had going, and ramping off the Cathodion seemed unnecessary since I intended to dump my hand, and extra mana would just go to waste, but I wasn't sure whether a 1/1 for 1 which left behind an artifact was good enough. It would have worked well with Myrsmith, but in the end I decided that triple Court homunculus and a copper carapace were enough one drops, and the rest of my deck was better.

I ended up going 2-1, losing in the finals to some green jank, but I'm satisfied with my play, and the draft was really fun. I'd suggest you give this format a try. Also, look forward this Friday to our online Modern Masters draft, where hopefully we'll open a foil Tarmagoyf and never have to pay for a draft again.

Thanks for reading,

-Step.